Joan Crawford demonstrates how women can remain relevant in middle age through high standards and a champion work ethic. I discuss Torch Song (1953) and then read an excerpt from A Portrait of Joan: The Autobiography of Joan Crawford.

In a standout script from Anita Loos, Jean Harlow and Clark Gable play scam artists who fall in love and then separate when a plan goes sour. Loos shakes up the usual sexual competition between two women in film to create allies instead of rivals. Stay tuned at the end when I share choice excerpts from Today is Tonight, the novel Harlow wrote in 1933. It's smoking hot.

Lana Turner gives an outstanding performance in George Cukor's picture about a small-town girl who becomes a top model. But what happens after you get what you want? Ann Dvorak delivers an earth-shaking depiction as the ghost of modelling past. The episode closes with an excerpt from Turner's memoir about the production.

Miriam Hopkins stars in this elegant screwball classic. She plays a starving architect who falls for Joel McCrea. Miriam always let you know when her characters were gasping for it, and she could make a Peter Pan collar look as sexy as a silk bias-cut gown.

I close the episode with an excerpt from Vincent Sherman's memoir where he talks about directing Miriam Hopkins and Bette Davis in Old Acquaintance (1943).